Update on the 2017 Taxi Plate Selection Process

The City of Calgary is pleased to announce that a review of the 2017 Taxi Plate Selection Process is complete.

Earlier this year, The City held a selection process for the release of 222 new taxi plates. Following the selection process, Administration became aware of issues with the process. Accordingly, an independent and impartial third party was asked to conduct a review and to develop a fair solution for any process issues.

KPMG has now concluded this review and its findings are:

Five applicants were inadvertently excluded from participating in the selection process when their ballot cards were excluded from the selection drum.

LTS intended to exclude from the draw any applicant who had received and still maintained a taxi plate as a result of the 2014 or 2015 selection process. However, one applicant who had received a taxi plate through one of those processes was inadvertently included in the draw. In regard to transfers, it should be noted that any applicant who had received and still maintained a taxi plate as a result of a transfer of plates between 2014 and 2017 was included in the draw. LTS’ intention was that if that applicant’s name was drawn, the applicant would be deemed ineligible to receive a plate during LTS’ eligibility review.

Two applicants were inadvertently allowed to submit applications for the 2017 plate selection process despite having already applied in 2014. Since applicants who did not receive a plate in earlier plate selection processes were automatically entered into the 2017 selection process, the two who reapplied in 2017 had two ballots inadvertently entered into the selection drum.

The review found no evidence that would suggest the process issues were the result of malicious intent by any City staff member to purposely exclude applicants from the process, give any individual a greater opportunity for selection, or otherwise impair the fairness of the selection process in general. The process issues were the result of human error.

Richard Hinse, Acting Director of Calgary Community Standards said: “The City is committed to a fair selection process for all applicants. We sincerely apologize for the errors caused by the 2017 selection process and thank everyone for their patience.

“Once we became aware of issues with the process, we had a responsibility to ensure that a review was put in place that was impartial, independent and thorough. While the review was completed as quickly as possible, the review itself was complex and time consuming.

“The City is committed to a fair selection process for all applicants. Administration will follow Council’s direction to adopt KPMG’s recommendation to issue taxi plates to eligible applicants selected on 2017 January 24, and to secure the services of a third party to perform a supplemental selection to give the five excluded applicants the opportunity to receive a plate, or be placed on the contingency list. In addition, supplemental draws to expand the current contingency list will be performed by a third party, and all applicants not selected for a taxi plate or the contingency list in January’s draw will be included in these supplemental draws.

“Now that KPMG has come back to us with their recommendations and Council has adopted them, I am confident we can move quickly to resolve the situation and to release the plates.”